Thursday, July 26, 2018

Hacking Spotify To Grow Followers, Streams, Playlist Slots | hypebot

While the holy grail for many artists are Spotify's tightly curated "home screen" playlists, working the system to earn a place on the listener-specific algorithm driven playlists is not only more achievable, but also more effective in growing streams and followers.

Spotify’s curated playlists get lots of love on the home screen, but the real driver for music streams comes from the algorithmic playlists. These playlists, Release Radar and Discover Weekly, are essential to increasing your presence on the streaming platform.

Artists tend to focus on getting placed on the bigger curated playlists, which are undoubtedly great, but the truth is that the algorithmic playlists will take your music further. For instance, Release Radar is a customized playlist for each Spotify user which is updated weekly with new releases from artists. Since most Spotify users listen to their customized playlists more than the curated ones, Release Radar easily outperforms other playlists in terms of streams. Bryan Johnson, the director of artists and management at Spotify UK, spoke last year on how Release Radar is key to getting as many fans as possible to follow their profiles on Spotify. “It’s Release Radar which is driving listens,” Johnson said, underscoring its importance.

The two best things you can do to generate more streams from these algorithmic playlists are:

1. Release New Music Often

Staying away too long from the platform hurts artists in the long run. Even if you’re only dropping single or EPs, more music is better than none, and will leave your listeners wanting more.

2. Build your Spotify Fan Base

Spotify followers are the most likely to see your new music appear in their Release Radar, so make sure you have a good relationship with them. Focus on good engagement with your metrics as well. Don’t gauge your success based on total number of streams. That’s not helpful. What is, however, is honing in on how many of your listeners are adding your music to their playlists, adding your song to their queue, or sharing your tracks on their social media.

If you follow these two pieces of advice, your streams will grow, you’ll gain more followers, and your presence on the platform will balloon.